No comments about The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent (Large Print Edition): Compiled by Home Gordon, With Two Portraits.

No comments about The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Large Print Edition).

No comments about Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography (Large Print Edition).

No comments about Autobiography of Christopher Kirkland, Volume 1, The (Large Print).

No comments about Garbo: Her Story (Charnwood Large Print Library Series).

1 comments about My Life, Volume 1 (Large Print Edition).

1. Today, with all the hyper PC attitudes running rampant and making otherwise sensible folk rewrite history and demonize great men of the past, it might be difficult to see Wagner as what he really was: a multi-talented man, a Renaissance man, a great man and a good family man, a man admired equally by Yeats and Mahler, a vegetarian, a democrat, a man of rare integrity, a creative man, an entertaining host and a well-liked guest. Yeats wrote that Wagner represented the acme of German symbolism in poetry and drama; Mahler, that there was only Beethoven and Wagner. Indeed, while Wagner's musical genius has never been in doubt, his dramatic and poetic genius has sometimes been underestimated, mainly by those with, at best, the German of a ten-year-old native speaker and no understanding of 19th century poetry or drama. Let's be clear here: Wagner's influence on subsequent writers and poets was quite considerable. Everybody from Thomas Mann to T.S. Eliot gave their nods to him.
   
   In this brilliantly narrated book, Wagner gives a complex and accurate picture of the 19th century, and one that the PC crowd doesn't want you to know about. (Ask yourself, why do only a couple of obscure small presses publish Wagner's autobiography, while every university press has its own politically correct Wagner book out, each of which sells quite nicely and is little more than a comfortable exercise in character assassination?)
   
   Don't forget the second volume: My Life, Volume 2 (Large Print Edition)
   
   This is a good edition by BiblioBazaar.

No comments about Grandmothers Talking (Isis (Hardcover Large Print)).

No comments about By the Water of Liverpool (Ulverscroft Large Print).

No comments about Taking the Biscuit.

4 comments about A Mother's Story (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

1. This book is an unexpected jewel that was given to me by a friend during a time in my life where I was struggling with myself and my path in life. Everyone can associate with the events and emotions conveyed in this touching account of a mother losing her son. Honest, personal, and moving, the author invites us into a sacred place and shares her tragedy with the world with loving care. At times I felt embarassed, as if I were trespassing into a private and personal memory. It is more than a book about loss and heart ache, it is a book about life.



2. Gloria Vanderbilt describes herself as living from earliest childhood in an "unbreakable glass bubble," a sense of being isolated from people because she was unlovable and unworthy, unable to feel deep emotions. Though she knew happiness for the first time with her fourth husband Wyatt Cooper and her sons, she still felt tinges of being cut off from reality. Her husband's death started to crack the unbreakable bubble surrounding her soul, and it shattered completely and forever when she witnessed her son Carter commit suicide, when he was 23.
   
   She then was able to feel the deepest pain and guilt, and to acknowledge the boundless joy he had brought to her. She writes in a disjointed manner, flashing back and forth with journal entries and short reflections about events in her life leading up to Carter's death, which she describes in acute detail. Her musings are written to herself and to Carter, except for one chapter in which she reaches out to readers who are dealing with loss; she never imagined she could survive after her son's death, but she did, and given enough time, others will, too.
   
   This little book is short enough, and compelling enough, to read in one sitting. Her reflections are deeply personal, and yet universally understood.
   
   Kona



3. I read this book before I read her husband Wyatt Cooper's book, which was written decades before Gloria's book. I was confused to find that almost every single one of Gloria's 'memories' of her sons, mostly centering around Carter, obviously, were almost word for word taken from Wyatt Cooper's novel. This makes her book, titled A Mother's Story, so much more sad for me---does Gloria not have any memories about her sons that are her own?
   
   Aside from that, she spends quite A LOT of the book basically doing the poor little rich girl routine. I'm sure she's had pain in her life, but everyone has! She goes on and on about how she's locked in a bubble and can't feel any real love, everyone that she's ever tried loving is taken from her, etc, etc, etc.
   
   The book is really choppy; short passages taken from her diary, lifted memories, and she jumps back and forth to her son, Carter's suicide. After she describes the suicide she spends the rest of the book going on about how she had to see her surriviving son, Anderson, right in life and then she could be with Wyatt and Carter again. Very melodramtic, but it makes my heart break for Anderson--she quite obviously would rather be 'in heaven with Daddy and Carter' than paying attention to the son she still has.
   
   The only reason I gave this book two stars instead of one is because it is a mercifully quick read.



4. Gloria Vanderbilt's novel isn't about Gloria, it's about Suicide and the aftermath of depression and grief. Even in the ever increasing, unwanted clique of suicide survivors, it's still fairly rare for those who have actually witnessed the suicide of our dearly loved ones to find help for our special sorrow. Suicide of a loved one is hard enough to deal with, but there's a distinctive anguish that must be dealt with when such a disturbing, shocking, and painful life-taking event is witnessed.
   
   Such an event separates us from the rest of society in an uncomfortable and agonizing way, and no one could have been more separated from her feelings than the last American Debutante: Gloria Vanderbilt. Raised to be a "lady", to never show strong emotions, to remain in control at all times, Gloria experienced many shattering events, but her "glass bubble" broke when her son committed suicide before her very eyes. Gloria had to break her glass bubble in order to survive, to deal with the overpowering emotion exclusive to survivors of suicide, and she poignantly shares her journey in this heartrending account of her son's life and death. Breaking her "bubble" was a gutsy act, one that perhaps you are facing now. I found strength in her words, and courageousness in her willingness to share her unique pain. Her story is about celebrating her son's life and accomplishments, remembering him as he was before his illness overtook his life, and about her courage to "break the glass bubble" and share her deep, heartfelt emotion and pain in order to help others in spite of her upbringing, which encouraged a lady to bottle up feelings.
   
   The stigma attached to suicide, and even those who are left behind, is often crippling. None felt this stigma more than a woman in constant "limelight", a woman of "old money" forced into a strict code of ethics that forbade public displays of emotion, or public displays of weakness. Uneducated people see suicide as a weakness, and apply this not just to the originator but to his/her family in his/her wake.
   
   I highly recommend this book for survivors of suicide. If you're looking for courage in this time of great need, please pick up a copy of this book. Also, do a google search for 'suicide survivors', and call your local Crisis Hotline for survivors groups in your area or phone numbers to call. You're not alone. There are groups of real people out there who share your unique pain, please contact them.